A short but true story. I chopped off a finger.
 

Tell us something that is a little known fact of your life. I'll start.

In third grade, my friend and I thought it would be bitchin' to smash a paint can. We tried to crush it with some rocks but the paint can was too stout. Naturally we decided to smash it with a manhole cover.

A manhole cover weights a shit ton we soon found out. We jammed our fingers into the gap just enough to get up under it and lift. It was too heavy.

My friend dropped his side. I got all my fingers out except my left pinky. The cover literally smashed off the tip of my finger, leaving the bone protruding - it skinned it.

I freaked. I started running through peoples' backyards screaming my head off and spraying blood from the finger. I made it home but don't remember much about it other than we had to go back for the mangled digit - it was still caught in the cover.

So off we go to the hospital. My father at the wheel of his 65 Chevy Stepside pickup and me putting pressure on the wound with a rag.

My dad was calm and told me they can sew it back on. I immediately imagined them using a sewing machine. I said "You know, dad...it doesn't hurt that much. I think it's fine."

They did sew it back on. They also used a bulky bandage which in the ensuing weeks would be ripped off my finger (with the finger staying in the bandage) a total of three times. Each time they sewed it on again.

The final time half my hand was blue and the finger was black. The doctor said they will need to amputate the finger. This was long before I knew I would need that finger to play guitar.

Nonetheless I plead for one more try and the doc did his best to salvage some skin from my arm and put the finger back together as best he could.

I was careful and eventually the bandage was removed. Half of my hand stayed black and blue for weeks but the tissue healed together into a presentable little finger. Sort of. More like a weird claw.

The nerves however, didn't grow back so i have no feeling in the tip of my finger. The nail grows strangely and about once a year I use an exacto knife to cut it out where it digs into my skin. (Can't feel a thing! I have also burned it with a soldering iron. I didn't know it was burning until I smelled it.)

Yet, I still use it for guitar. I can't feel the string which is weird but it's all I know. It works as well as any other finger on my left hand.

If they amputated the finger it would be unlikely that I would have taken up guitar a few years later.

That guitar has kept a roof over my head, fed me, put me through college and made friends all over the world. If that little kid didn't insist on one more chance, my entire life trajectory would have been altered.

I like Story Time With Pete. Pete always has cool stories.

:cheers:

I all but tore my leg off in a motorcycle accident. Compound fracture with 6” of bone hanging out. I spent three months in the hospital and underwent multiple surgeries including removal of my calf muscle. At one point early on amputation was discussed but they brought in a surgeon from Mayo who had an idea which worked.

Two years later I purchased another motorcycle and have owned one since.

Better than YadKareNNN’s lies. :yesnod:

When I was 17 I went through a plate glass window, my boot got nicked, that was it.

I had more stiches, skull fractures and various injuries before age 5 then 95% of people ever have.
Ever have 10 stiches in wrist with nothing to dull the pain? Too far out in country so Doc at his house did it. My sister in the car pissed herself I screamed so loud. Skull fracture dead center forehead, suprised I'd lived through it. My whole head turned black n blue. Only time my life i got to sleep in my parents bed.
Think we were having injury contests those years... I got used to sight of blood early and how not to panic, it's served me well as if you're injured I probably know enough to treat it and keep you alive.
We moved from the farm which probably saved more than one life.

You're in good company, Pete.

Django Reinhardt only had two fingers and he played guitar pretty well. See this short clip from 1939:

Other musicians missing fingers:

Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath, lost the tips of his index and middle finger on his right hand (he is a left-handed player) on the last day of his job as a sheet metal worker, after he quit to do Black Sabbath full time. Great story at this Wikipedia link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Iommi#Accident
Part of how he found the inspiration to continue playing was provided by his foreman at the sheet metal factory who insisted that he listen to Django Reinhardt. He ended up substituting bits of a leather jacket for the missing fingertips, then later fashioning fingertips from thimbles and tuning his guitar down so the strings wouldn't be so hard (and painful) to press against the fretboard. This ended up with him creating a unique guitar sound that he became famous for.

Jerry Garcia lost the middle finger of his left hand while chopping wood with his brother as a child. He said he never missed that finger as a musician.

Jim Croce lost use of his right index finger in a sledgehammer accident. So he developed a unique picking style with his remaining fingers.

Dr. John was a guitar player and got shot in his left ring finger when a gunfight broke out in a bar he was playing at. He lost use of the finger for such a long time that his guitar playing suffered so he switched to piano.

Les Paul shattered his right elbow in a car accident in 1948. He refused amputation and had the elbow permanently fused in a 90-degree position so he could still pick and strum.

When my brother and I were about 5 and 6 we played a game where we would hide a stuffed animal monkey in our room and the other had to find it. We called it "Hide the Monkey". LoL
Anyway we were playing one day and I hid it in the closet (which in the 60's had big, solid oak doors) and my brother eventually made his way into the closet. Thinking that I'd lost I slammed the door. My brother started screaming and I held the door closed as I thought he'd found the monkey. Come to find out his screams were because he had his fingers in the door jamb. I managed to cut the tip off his middle finger and mangle the one next to it. Luckily they saved the tip and managed to make his other finger look "normal" To this day he bitches about it.
So I didn't cut my fingers off, that would be stupid. I cut my brothers off.......smart.

Got flipped out of a go-kart doing just about 100mph when I was a teenager in Italy. Spent 3 months on crutches and another 6 months in physical therapy to be able to walk and run again.

Growing up I was a ski racer, Hockey, Baseball and nothing. 10 years ago I had a appendics go very bad and incision from my navel to nuts. In the past three years, 2 kidney surgeries, 2 knee jobs, both hips replaced, cataracts, and now getting steroid shots every 3 months in both shoulders.

Other than that, I'm fine. :dance:

We’re you on the forum then? Seems like I remember that.

Do you wear a helmet? Because you really should wear a helmet at all times.

Me and the neighbor girl played Hide the Monkey but it must have been a different game.

Excellent story. Thanks for sharing.

I was sitting on my garage floor around the age of 8 and went to get up by using an empty aquarium on its side to push against.

I got a six inch shard stuck up my wrist exposing tendons. I still have scarring.

I also got my dick caught in a xerox machine but that was intentional.

The closest to bleeding out happened when I was about 7. We had one of those steel framed , vinyl liner wading pools. We were filling it when my younger brother took the hose and stuck it in a glass gallon milk bottle.

I grabbed it from him and as I tried to remove the hose, it exploded. Not only did it shred the pool liner, a glass shard cut my leg literally a 1/4" from the main artery. That took a handful of stitches to close it back up. the doctor told my Mom if it would have sliced that artery, I would have bled out in under a minute. You can still see the scar 54 years later.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I was building a car model when the exacto knife I was using slipped off the model piece I was trimming and cut my left pointing finger to the bone. ( I would have cut it clean off but the bone was in the way. :seasix: )
You can still see the scar 50 years later.

Really it’s amazing we all lived this long.

I saw one of the guys from "the neighborhood gang" about 20 years ago. After I proved who I was ( I gained muscle size from working as an ironworker), he said "you're still alive?"

Between driving cars too fast, street bikes and dirt bikes, ( and some other activities I won't admit to) I guess GOD isn't done with me yet. :angel: